A Study on Edible Polymer Films for Food Packaging Industry: Current Scenario and Advancements

Over the past two decades, food packaging and packaging industry have paid close attention to create biodegradable and edible polymer films and coatings. In a broad way, edible polymers emerged as a new class of materials that garnered significant properties due to their advantages over synthetic petroleum-based films. When compared to conventional packaging materials, edible polymer films can fundamentally simplify products, improving their potential to be recycled. This work aims to give readers a thorough introduction to edible polymer films, by discussing present research trends, classification, functionality and composition, fabrication, and characterization. The work also emphasizes the advantages and disadvantages of edible polymer films based on meat, poultry, dairy products, fruits, nuts, and vegetables